Celtic's famous production line could be about to kick into gear again

From the Lisbon Lions and Quality Street Gang of the 1960s and 70s to 80s and 90s talents like Paul McStay, Roy Aitken, Tommy Burns, Charlie Nicholas and George McCluskey, great Celtic sides consistently had one or two top-class ‘homegrown’ players.

After some of the lowest points in club history, Fergus McCann’s restructuring laid the foundations for the success of the Martin O’Neill era. During this time, youth players seemed to fall by the wayside in favour of big-money talent; the only homegrown player who featured in the 2003 UEFA Cup final in Seville was Shaun Maloney in the second half of extra-time.

But just as it seemed the Celts had found their place in terms of spending, modern football raced away from them again and the club could no longer rely on expensive signings to populate their side.

Squads from Gordon Strachan’s tenure onwards had to feature multiple academy products, with the famous title win in 2007-08 boating four such players in the squad for the final game at Tannadice. Stephen McManus, Aiden McGeady, Cillian Sheridan and Darren O’Dea all played in that match, which finished 1-0 thanks to a Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink header.

In the last decade, Celtic have profited massively from the academy – and not just financially. Kieran Tierney, of course, became the club’s most expensive departure at £25million to Arsenal in the 2019-20 season but James Forrest has become the club’s fourth-most decorated player with 20 medals to his name and Calum McGregor has stepped up to become a top-quality captain and arguably the club’s most important player.

Tierney aside, however, it would seem that the cycle of new blood able to make a proper mark on the first team has dried up.

It prompts some questions: to what extent do the reasons for that lie at the club’s door? Are academy players simply not at the level they once were? Is it sheer bad luck?

Before the cancellation of the Scottish reserves structure in 2009, Celtic had won the SPL reserve league from 2005-2009 and the SPL youth league from 2003-2006. More recently – following the reformation of the reserve league – the club opted to field a B team in the Lowland League alongside Rangers. This period hasn’t been quite as successful, with their most recent trophy being the Glasgow Cup win of 2019.

That’s not to say that Celtic haven’t had any highly-rated youngsters come from the academy in the past few years.

Karamoko Dembele, for instance, is someone who will no doubt be spoken about for many years to come. A player who became a phenomenon at the age of 13, with the whole footballing world aware of his name, his career at Celtic has come to an anti-climactic end.

After a promising start to his Celtic career, Dembele was given little chance in the first team in the 2020-21 season despite the club finishing 25 points off the top during a campaign in which it felt like even the worst of young players wouldn’t have looked out of place among the seniors.

A fractured ankle from a horror tackle in a pre-season friendly in July 2021 against Bristol City put him out until February in a season which could have been special for him under Ange Postecoglou. The youngster’s contract expired this summer following 10 appearances and a singular goal. He clocked 163 competitive minutes in total.

Then there’s Ben Doak. The winger made two appearances for the club before signing for Liverpool in March. At age 16, Celtic received a reported £600,000 in training compensation but he is another player whose potential the support was unable to truly discover. Barry Hepburn, Leo Hjelde, Liam Morrison and Josh Adam are a similar story even without the first-team nod.

Dembele, Doak and co. follow plenty of talents over the last decade who teased excellence before ultimately failing to make the grade. Dylan McGeouch scored one of the best goals many will have witnessed live at Parkhead in just his second appearance at the club, Jack Aitchison became the youngest player to represent Celtic competitively and scored with his first touch, while Liam and Euan Henderson both looked like the potential was there to make an impact at first-team level.

Mikey Johnston is still at the club but injury after injury may well have scuppered his chances of becoming a serious contributor in the first team.

Stephen Welsh, 22, made 24 appearances for the Hoops last season including three Europa League matches. When called upon, the Scotsman rarely put a foot wrong. Adam Montgomery also built on the two appearances he made in his debut season last year, playing 14 times this time round.

READ MORE: Three Celtic youngsters who could make first-team breakthrough this pre-season

It could be said that these selections were made out of necessity over anything else due to threadbare squad depth in the first half of the season. Indeed, after the January window and with more options available, Montgomery moved to Aberdeen on loan while Welsh rarely featured.

There were other occasions for players in the B team to have their shot at the first-team last season but again this was also largely due to necessity, with a period in December in which you would have been excused for not recognising any of the substitutes on the Celtic bench had you passed them on the street.

Earlier, Dane Murray made his debut in the Champions League qualifiers against FC Midtjylland and gave a solid account of himself despite the fact he was pitched in due to the state of the senior squad at the time. Owen Moffat, too, made three appearances and even earned a League Cup medal while Joey Dawson was given a run-out in the Boxing Day victory over St Johnstone. If you’re a ‘glass-half-full’ person you could argue these examples offer a glimmer of hope. Anthony Ralston - with 47 appearances in a surprise standout season - might be the only true case of that from last term.

Nineteen-year-old Tobi Oluwayemi appears to be the latest highly-rated youngster still within the ranks at Celtic. Signed from Tottenham in 2019, there are lots of noises coming from Lennoxtown that he is the ‘real deal’.

There aren’t many goalkeepers you would rather have mentoring young talent than Joe Hart, who has enjoyed a career most could only dream of, and despite playing for the B team Oluwayemi was regularly training with the first-team goalkeepers last season.

“Training with the first-team forces you to up your game in every sort of department,” Oluwayemi told The Celtic View. “Whether it’s bulking out, getting faster or stronger, the intensity in everything they do is higher.

“If you get a passback, the time you have to get the ball out and play is shorter because they’re on you before you know it. When you’re shot-stopping, the shots are a lot faster and you can see they’re thinking about their finishing more.

“You get made to pay for mistakes that you wouldn’t even have thought was a mistake.”

Despite making multiple appearances on the bench during last season’s Europa League campaign it would seem that Oluwayemi’s path to the first team has been blocked for the foreseeable with club choosing to extend Scott Bain’s contract until 2024 as well as sign Benjamin Siegrist on a four-year deal.

This particular player in that particular position still has time on his side but the club still must be wary of stunting his development if he is kept in the Lowland League while other clubs which can offer him a better chance at first-team football could eventually catch his eye.

And yet. It seems Postecoglou’s arrival has begun to steer the club in the right direction off the pitch as much as on it.

He appears, having identified a problem in terms of demonstrating a viable pathway to the first-team for youngsters, to have made efforts to remedy it. Upon Harry Kewell’s appointment as first-team coach, McManus moved to work with the B team.

“I was keen to restructure our coaching setup,” Postecoglou said recently. “A critical part of this was having a close link between the first team and B team coaching structures – and Stephen’s role will also be hugely important for us as we look to get that conveyor belt of talent going between the B team, directly up to the first team.

“The B team will again compete in the Lowland League, something which will be a crucial development opportunity for our young players as they aim to progress and advance further. I wanted a really strong connection to the development of our B team and Stephen, with this knowledge of our current first-team philosophy and demands, will be ideal in this role.”

McManus is someone who knows what it takes to make the step up from youth level to the first team. He knows the club – and the city – well. He is a former captain and knows exactly what Postecoglou is after in a player. It could be the decision to place him in this position is the oil that helps the Celtic production line kick into gear again at last.

This new season has the makings of a great one for all the obvious reasons – trophies, goals, Europe – but with Postecoglou making such a concerted effort to bridge the disconnect between the B team and first team, it could prove to be great in a less conspicuous way too.